The present invention relates generally to a cotton picker, and more specifically to a moistener pad for supplying moisture to the picker spindles.
Presently available cotton pickers of the type exemplified by the John Deere Model 9940 Cotton Picker include a plurality of upright picker drums having picker spindles mounted in upright columns on picker bars. The picker spindles are rotated under moistener pads supported in a column on a moistener pad assembly adjacent each drum. The pads are mounted in cantilever fashion from an upright member and fluid such as water from a distributor located at the top of the member is communicated to the pad through a plurality of flexible hoses. Each pad typically includes a base which connects the pad to the holder assembly, and a plurality of fins extending downwardly from the base in parallel relationship for contacting and wiping the spindles. A single line of apertures located in the middle of the pad communicates fluid from the flexible tubing to only about half the fins. As the spindles sweep under the fins, fluid is distributed to the remaining fins, and the spindles are moistened. Such a spindle moistener pad structure is shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 2,369,708.
Drawbacks of such prior art devices are lack of uniformity in the distribution of the liquid along the fins of the pad because of the aperture configuration, and higher distribution of liquid in the pads near the lower end of the assembly as compared with the pads near the upper end of the assembly because some of the fluid from the upper pads tends to drip down on the lower pads. Often the fluid on the pads is concentrated near the center of the pads and on the fins adjacent the apertures which feed the fluid from the flexible tubing to the fins. As a result, the spindles are not adequately moistened and cleaned by the pads, which results in less efficient doffing of the spindles and reduced productivity.